Portugal’s new centre-right Prime Minister Luis Montenegro unveiled his cabinet. File
| Photo Credit: AFP

Portugal’s new centre-right Prime Minister Luis Montenegro unveiled his cabinet Thursday, after his centre-right coalition barely managed to emerge top in a badly fractured parliament.

The 51-year-old lawyer was last week asked to form a government after the March 10 polls, which had resulted in a hung parliament.

Although the far-right party Chega party became the third-largest party after Montenegro’s Social Democratic Party and the Socialists, he has refused to make any deals with them.

But he will not have a stable working majority.

Late Thursday Montenegro sent his list of 17 ministers to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa then left the presidential palace without making a statement.

The list includes experienced politicians in key positions, including the ministries of finance, economy and foreign affairs, according to a statement released by the president’s office.

Euro-deputy Paulo Rangel will serve as foreign minister, while Joaquim Miranda Sarmento, the former parliamentary leader of Montenegro’s party, will take the finance portfolio.

Pedro Reis, who headed the government agency for trade and investment, has been appointed to the Ministry of the Economy.

Montenegro’s minority government, which includes seven women, will assume power next Tuesday, bringing an end to eight years of Socialist rule.

– Fragmented parliament –

The Democratic Alliance, a coalition anchored by Montenegro’s centre-right Social Democrat Party (PSD) that includes two smaller conservative parties, received 28.8 percent of the vote and won 80 seats in the 230-seat parliament.

The Socialist Party of outgoing premier Antonio Costa won 28% of the ballot and 78 seats. The far-right Chega — “Enough” in Portuguese — soared to 50 deputies from 12 in the previous assembly.

For days, the badly fragmented parliament was unable to elect a speaker.

Finally, the PSD and the Socialists agreed to share the role, with the PSD’s Jose Pedro Aguiar-Branco holding the position until September 2026 before passing it to a Socialist.

The new government faces calmer seas on the financial and economic front.

It inherits a budget surplus of 1.2% of gross domestic product, only the second such annual surplus since Portugal returned to democratic rule in 1974.

Outgoing prime minister Costa met his successor Wednesday, saying he was leaving office with a “sense of duty accomplished” despite having wished he had progressed further on some issues such as health.

“The new government will certainly have plenty of problems to resolve,” he added.

Portugal is holding an early general election Sunday when 10.8 million registered voters elect 230 lawmakers to the National Assembly, the country’s Parliament.
| Photo Credit: AP

Voters in Portugal go to the polls on March 10 in an early election that could see the country join a shift to the right seen across Europe after eight years of Socialist rule.

Final opinion polls published on March 8 show the centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) narrowly ahead of the Socialist Party (PS) but short of an outright majority in parliament, which could make the far-right party Chega a kingmaker for forming a governing coalition.

Also Read | Turning inward: On the rise of far-right parties in Europe 

But analysts warned the results of the election, Portugal’s second in two years, remained wide open given the large number of undecided voters.

Voting stations in the nation of around 10 million people open at 8:00 a.m (0800 GMT) with exit poll projections expected at 8:00 p.m.

The AD leader, 51-year-old lawyer Luis Montenegro, has campaigned on promises to boost economic growth by cutting taxes, and to improve the country’s public services.

“We really must turn the page,” he told a packed final rally at Lisbon’s bullring.

Mr. Montenegro has ruled out any post-election agreement with Chega, but other top AD officials have been more ambiguous.

Analysts say a deal with the anti-establishment Chega, which means “Enough”, may prove the only way for the AD to govern.

Chega’s leader Andre Ventura, a former trainee priest who went on to become a tough-talking television football commentator, has said his party is “as legitimate as the others”.

Chega calls for tougher measures to fight corruption, stricter controls over immigration and chemical castration for some sex offenders.

Just five years old, Chega picked up its first seat in Portugal’s 230-seat parliament in 2019, becoming the first far-right party to win representation in the assembly since a military coup in 1974 toppled a decades-long right-wing dictatorship.

It increased its seats to 12 seats in 2022 and polls suggest it could more than double that number this time.

That would mirror gains by far-right parties across Europe, where they already govern – often in coalition – in countries such as Italy, Hungary or Slovakia, or are steadily gaining, as in France and Germany.

Change direction

The election was called after Socialist Prime Minister Antonio Costa, 62, unexpectedly resigned in November following an influence-peddling probe that involved a search of his official residence and the arrest of his chief of staff.

Though Mr. Costa himself was not accused of any crime, he decided not to run again.

Under his watch unemployment has dropped, the economy expanded by 2.3% last year – one of the fastest rates in the eurozone – and public finances have improved.

But surveys indicate many voters feel Costa’s government squandered the outright majority it won in 2022 by failing to improve unreliable public health services and education, or address a housing crisis that has sparked large street protests in what remains one of Western Europe’s poorest countries.

“We need to change the direction of the country because it can’t continue in this state,” Antonio Ferreira, a 47-year-old telecoms technician and volunteer firefighter, told AFP at an AD street rally Friday in Lisbon’s upscale Alvalade neighbourhood.

The Socialists’ new leader, 46-year-old former infrastructure minister Pedro Nuno Santos, has defended the government’s record even as he acknowledges it could have done better in some areas.

“The right thinks they’re going to win the election with their usual arrogance and lack of humility. It’s the Portuguese people who will decide,” he said at his final rally on Friday night.